ASCL calls for rethink of inspection and accountability reform 25/03/2025 The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has today submitted responses to consultations from Ofsted on improving the way it inspects education and from the Department for Education on school accountability reform. Commenting following ASCL’s submissions, Julie McCulloch, Senior Director of Strategy and Policy, said: “As ASCL has made clear, we fully support strong accountability, reform of the inspection system, and the principle of report cards. However, having carefully considered these proposals in consultation with members, it is our belief that school and college leaders – and the system as a whole – will be worse off if they are implemented in their current form. “Our biggest concern is that the proposed move to a 5-point grading scale fails to address concerns about school and college leaders’ wellbeing and the impact of this on the current leader and teacher recruitment and retention crisis, and will undermine the reliability of inspections. We do not think that inspectors can reliably make nuanced graded judgements across eight to ten evaluation areas on a 5-point scale, and believe that this will undermine trust in the inspection process and ultimately lead to more complaints and challenges. In our consultation we have set out alternative grading approaches that we would urge Ofsted to consider adopting. “We do not think that Ofsted can continue with these proposals in their current form and carry the trust of the sector. They must commit to listening to the responses to their consultation and rethinking aspects of the proposals. If this requires the current interim approach to inspection to continue for longer than planned, to give DfE and Ofsted the time they need to get this right, this would be far preferable to pushing ahead with proposals that are fundamentally flawed.” You can read ASCL’s full consultation response to Ofsted here, and the DfE here.